Of Sorcery and Snow (12 page)

Of course I felt like I needed to rescue the kids of Portland. Chase and I had handed the Snow Queen a way out. It was our fault they were in that mess.

Miriam started again.

But the Water was true.

The wall shattered, exploding outward. It left a hole seven feet tall and five feet wide. The force shoving her back disappeared.
The Snow Queen ran, wishing now that someone was here to see her escape from the inescapable prison, to see her step onto the grass she had stared at for decades.

She relocated to a small clearing nearby and began work on another doll—one identical to herself, one that could stand in her place when the Canon sent someone to check on her. It wasn't time to spread the word that she was free. She had so much to do before Mildred tried to stop her—a palace to rebuild, an army to reassemble, a reputation to reestablish, and wishes to make.

And—as much as she hated to admit it—her powers were not what they once were, not after years baking under that hated glass dome.

Chase brightened. “Having weakened powers is good.”

“No, it
was
good,” I said, mourning our lost chance. “The ball was in
her
court. If she has started to move again, that means she thinks she's ready.”

Miriam turned another page. The illustration at the top had a portrait of her own worried face glaring down at the book. “There's more.”

SECOND STORY. A Plan and a Piper

One day the Snow Queen needed a demonstration of power. She needed to prove two things: She had returned, and so had her might.

She decided to do what she did best: steal children.

She would send the Pied Piper—she had daydreamed about it during her long imprisonment. She'd even chosen the location a year previous, when her spy doll had carefully leafed through EAS's records—Hawthorne neighborhood, in the city of Portland, had the most young Characters of any other area on the continent. Even better, an ancient portal to her domain already existed there. She would send the Pied Piper and strike Mildred where it would hurt her the most, at her beloved EASers, at the human world the Canon believed safe.

And so she did.

And when her piper and her general delivered the stolen children to her palace, she watched the terrified young wake from the piper's song and smiled at her good work.

Miriam flapped the page uselessly. The rest was blank. “That's it? Stupid book. It's
my
Tale, isn't it? Why doesn't it mention me?”

She sniffed hard. I hovered near her shoulder, trying to decide if I should give her a hug or not.

Chase went in for distraction, his number-one tactic for dealing with someone about to cry. “Okay, admit it: Who's a little freaked out after that fun trip into the mind of the Snow Queen?” He raised a hand and peered at Lena, who was still kneeling beside the cabinet, swaying slightly. “Lena, 'fess up—I can see you wobbling from here.”

Lena didn't even look at us. “I found the map of Portland.”

She didn't ask the question again, but we all thought it:
Are we still going?

Paper crinkled as Lena carefully returned the maps to their drawers. Chase and I watched Miriam blink hard at the current volume.

While we waited, the book added a few more lines. No one read them out loud.

This, Miriam Chen-Moore knew.

Safe in the library, surrounded by books and allies, she asked herself what her brother would do, if she had been stolen in his place.

Then the door burst open.

We froze. Well, except for Lena, who covered her eyes, probably trying to shield herself from the librarian's look of betrayal.

But it was just Kyle again. Gulping down mouthfuls of air, he slammed the door behind him.

“They saw through the illusion?” Lena whispered.

He shook his head. “You tripped an alarm. I overheard Rumpelstiltskin tell the Director. They're coming.”

“We need to get out of here,” I said, because I was a master of the obvious.

“Not that way,” Kyle said, pointing to the door. “They were literally a few steps behind me. Connor bumped into Rumpelstiltskin and knocked him over to buy us time—”

“Is he okay?” Lena said, and Chase shot her an exasperated look.

“—but they'll see us if we go to the courtyard,” Kyle finished.

“The back way, then.” Beside the map cabinet, Chase pushed aside a curtain and pulled a case of tools from his jacket pocket, pretending to pick the lock while he muttered the Fey spell. I closed the current volume, trying to position it exactly the way we found it.

Lena kept returning maps to their drawers. She was the only person I knew who could be frantic and slow at the same time.

“Bingo.” Chase pushed. The door tried to swing closed and lock automatically, so he had to brace it open. Beyond was a corridor with a beanstalk mosaic inlaid on the floor and cast-iron fixtures on the wall. Torchlight flickered across his face. “Let's go.”

Nobody had to tell Kyle twice. He darted through so quickly that I wondered if he shared Lena's feelings about breaking rules. Lena and Miriam weren't far behind.

I walked backward, scanning the room for anything out of place as I went. There. Miriam's handbag thing—she'd left it right beside the book, where any suspicious librarian or Director could find it.

“Rory,” Chase grunted when I changed directions and snagged the purse. He was losing the battle with the door. It pushed him back, making his shoes squeak against the floor. He had to use his foot as a doorstop and his arm as a crowbar, just to keep it open.

“Sorry!” I whispered, waving the purse as an excuse.

Then the front entrance flew open.

“Stop!” the Director called. “We have seen you! Students are not permitted in the library.”

I squeezed under Chase's arm. Something fell out of my hair.

“Rapunzel's comb!” I turned back to pick it up, but Chase grabbed my wrist.

“Leave it,” he said, yanking me forward into the hall. The door thumped shut behind us. As he dragged me down the corridor, I looked back, hoping I could spot the little comb.

I saw all right. I saw it hit the floor and bounce once, and then I saw metal bars sprout from its teeth, like iron vines snaking across the doorway, weaving together on the way up, like a chain-link fence.

Yeah. My jaw definitely dropped.

On the other side of the door, I could hear the Director saying, “The key! Rumpelstiltskin, I need the key to this door immediately!”

“Did you see what the comb did?” I asked Chase.

He obviously didn't have any idea what I was talking about. “Forget the comb. We have to hide. They're going to search this hall.”

“No, we should run to the Portland door,” I protested. “Hiding won't help us if they already know it's us.”

“Well, she didn't actually see
us
,” Chase told me. “Last-minute glamour. We looked like twelfth-grade boys. Hopefully she'll think it's a senior prank.”

That was unexpectedly brilliant of him.

“She'll figure
out
who it is if you two don't stop bickering,” said Lena, hands on her hips. “No one in EAS fights as much as you do.”

She had found one of the storerooms, and as soon as Chase picked the lock, Miriam ran in and concealed herself behind a row of puffy ball gowns on hangers. Kyle ducked behind an urn as big as a troll's torso.

Then we heard the Director's voice, no longer muffled. She must have gotten the door open.

“Who dropped this comb?” the Director cried. Good. The bars were still blocking the way. “Get me Rapunzel.” My relief drained away. We had just gotten her into serious trouble. “And tell Gretel, Hansel, Stu, and Ellie to search this service corridor. These pranksters must be found. Seniors or not, they can still be punished.”

Chase grinned. “I'll take thanks and pats on the back now.”

iriam made us all hide until we saw an opportunity to sneak to the Portland door. Lena ducked in with Kyle. She clearly didn't want to pass up an opportunity to hang out with her crush. I found a nice spot under the shelves of dried goods, creepy stuff like petrified newt eyes, shredded basilisk skin, and cockatrice teeth. Sadly, my cozy hiding spot became significantly less roomy when Chase decided to hide with me, too lazy to find his own. I got smushed between him and a nice large bag labeled
DRIED LEAVES—TREE OF HOPE.

I hated waiting. Hiding wouldn't matter if any of the grown-ups checked this storeroom.

Apparently Lena thought so too. I couldn't see her, but I could hear her murmur, all in a rush, “I wish that they wouldn't find us, that they forget this storeroom is here, that they walk right by without seeing us, so we can get to Portland safely.”

We had all been thinking this, but saying it out loud seemed pretty weird. Then Kyle asked, “Is that new?”

“Portable wish,” Lena said. “They like very specific requests.”

“You got it to work?” Kyle said, impressed.

“
Maybe
. This is its test run,” Lena said, sounding pretty nervous.

We would find out, I guess.

Pitching her voice even lower, she started to say something else. I tilted my head to the side, trying to make out the words. Maybe you could call this eavesdropping, but really, I was being a good best friend, taking notes for the boy talk that would happen later.

“What would you have done if someone asked you to dance?” Chase whispered.

He obviously didn't realize I was listening in. “Same thing as Lena,” I said swiftly, hoping he would take a hint and be quiet so I could go back to eavesdropping. “Say we were busy.”

“But did you
want
someone to ask you?” Chase asked. “Is that why you wore so much makeup?”

Those questions were so weird I turned to look at him, but I couldn't really see much in the dark, just the glint of his eyes watching me. “I
told
you. Mom wouldn't let me come unless she thought I was excited about the dance.” Besides, I couldn't imagine dancing with anyone other than Chase. Or maybe Ben Taylor, but only because I thought Chatty might want me to describe the experience in detail so she could imagine attending the ball herself.

“Shhh!” hissed the dresses hanging across the room. In other words, Miriam. “They
will
find us if you guys keep chatting.”

“One more question,” Chase said. “Are we going or not?”

The dresses were silent long enough for us to know it wasn't an easy decision.

I imagined exactly what would happen if we didn't—house arrest in San Fran, explaining everything to my family, trying to convince my mom to let me go back to EAS. Knowing that I'd helped the Snow Queen escape, knowing that everything she did would be my fault.

Finally Miriam said, “Of course. He's my brother.”

“Yeah,” Kyle and Lena said, as if that explained everything.

And maybe it did. I could feel Chase nodding behind me.

I was the only one who didn't have a sibling. Yet.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway—the high-heeled kind and another quieter pair. We all went still.

“Well?” That was the Director, almost yelling. She must have been right outside the storeroom. “Can you tell me what this is?”

“It's my comb.” Rapunzel was kind of quiet in general, but if we didn't breathe too loudly, I could make out what she was saying.

“Yes,” said the Director impatiently. “I want you to tell me what it's doing here.”

“I could not tell you. I took out all my combs for the ball, and I last saw it in the courtyard. I felt its absence when I visited the Table a half hour ago,” Rapunzel said.

“You didn't search for it?” the Director demanded. “One of the four combs that finally captured Solange, the only bars powerful enough to subdue her?”

I choked a little on my own spit. As I fought to keep from coughing, Chase slapped a hand over my mouth. His fingers smelled like salsa.